Brutal Opening Is Highlight of This Week's Game of Thrones

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Brutal Opening Is Highlight of This Week's Game of Thrones

Pycelle

HELEN SLOAN

In this week's installment of Game of Thrones, Theon Greyjoy learns that leading the ruthless Ironborn is harder than it sounds, Jon Snow discovers that the lands beyond the Wall hold more surprises than he thought, and Tyrion Lannister slaps his very first king.

This episode, entitled "The Old Gods and the New," kicks off with a bang and delivers some great moments, but ultimately gets dragged down by attempts to make the story more comical and action-packed, which introduces a few puzzling moments and makes the tone a bit inconsistent throughout.

(Spoiler alert: Plot points follow.)

Game of Thrones tends to be at its best when it sticks close to its brutal source material, A Clash of Kings, the second book in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, and that was definitely the case this time around. Here are a few of the most noteworthy changes from the novel. The first was quite successful, but a few of the others are likely to aggravate some of the more hard-core Martin fans.

1) Theon beheads Rodrik?

In "The Old Gods and the New," Theon Greyjoy and his Ironmen seize Winterfell. The scene in which Theon wakes Bran Stark and tells him that the castle has fallen is very faithful to the book, and highly effective. In the show, Theon's men bring him the captured knight Ser Rodrik Cassel, master-of-arms at Winterfell, who trained Theon as a boy, and the old man spits in Theon's face. Theon's lieutenant Dagmer warns that this insult must be punished by death, or else Theon's men will view him as weak.

>If you're going to change something from the books, this is the way to do it — with deadly seriousness.

Over the protests of Maester Luwin and the wails of Bran, Theon orders that Rodrik be executed, until Rodrik reminds him that in the North the man who passes the sentence must swing the sword, and Theon is forced to do the bloody deed himself, a task which leaves him shaken.

This is a bit different from what happens in A Clash of Kings, in which Theon is forced to behead Farlen, the truculent kennelmaster of Winterfell, but the scene is very true to the novel in tone. This is what* A Song of Ice and Fire* is all about – characters who live in a brutal world that demands impossible choices and that ruthlessly punishes any lapse in judgment. Rodrik's last words are haunting. If you're going to change something from the books, this is the way to do it – with deadly seriousness.

2) Why does Arya steal Tywin's letter?

One of the highlights of last week's episode, "The Ghost in Harrenhal," was the interaction between Arya Stark and Tywin Lannister, in particular a conversation that climaxes with Arya declaring flatly, "Anyone can be killed." In "The Old Gods and the New," the chemistry between the two actors is as fine as ever, but the logic of the situation is starting to become strained. Tywin's failure to mercilessly interrogate Arya at this point seems pretty unbelievable – is he just not that curious about why the Night's Watch was bringing a girl disguised as a boy from King's Landing to the Wall? A Northern girl who possesses the (extremely rare) gift of literacy? And if he does suspect that Arya isn't who she says she is, why is he giving her such amazing opportunities to spy on him? Just because he enjoys her company? This seems very strange considering how adamant he is to Amory Lorch in this episode that Lannister agents not be reckless with their intel.

Tywin here acts super nice, more like a doting grandfather than a humorless battle commander. Granted, in the books we largely see Tywin from the point of view of Tyrion, which colors our perceptions somewhat, but this is still the guy who thought the best way to teach his son not to marry a commoner was to have an innocent girl gang-raped. One of the things that makes A Song of Ice and Fire so intense is that the ruthless characters are so very, very ruthless, and by softening Tywin so much, some of that intensity is starting to leech away.

It's impossible for me to view Arya stealing and being caught with Tywin's letter as anything other than an idiot plot contrivance. (An "idiot plot" is where the only way to make the plot go the way you want is to make your characters behave in uncharacteristically stupid ways.) Why on earth does Arya steal the letter? It was short enough that she could easily peruse its contents while Tywin was lost in his avuncular reverie, and what possible use could she have for the parchment itself that would outweigh the risk of Tywin noticing it was gone? The letter does provide a reason why Arya would waste her second assassination coupon on a nobody like Amory Lorch rather than on a more obvious target like Tywin himself, but this could certainly have been set up in a less contrived way. (And this is all completely different from the book, in which Arya uses her second wish on a cruel understeward named Weese.)

"The Old Gods and the New" also featured another random, non-canonical appearance by Lord Petyr Baelish, aka Littlefinger. The scene in which Arya attempts to serve him wine without being recognized was amusing enough, but the screen time could probably have been better spent elsewhere.

Here we see Tyrion Lannister (played by Peter Dinklage) limbering up his king-slapping hand.

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

3) Why are there zombies in King's Landing?

One of the most jarring moments this week was when a mob of starving peasants fall upon the High Septon, and one of them rips off the priest's arm and pumps it in the air. I really did wonder for a moment if a zombie virus had broken loose in King's Landing. Granted, in A Clash of Kings we hear reports that the High Septon was "ripped apart" by the crowd, but I never imagined it happening so literally. Maybe if the crowd had had some rocks and knives or something it might have felt a bit more plausible, but still, what's the point? I think the show would be well advised to keep more of the gore offscreen, not just because it would feel more serious and tasteful, but also because the gore effects themselves often look kind of cheesy.

>The show would be well advised to keep more of the gore offscreen.

I had the same reaction in the subsequent scene, which was otherwise excellent, where Sandor Clegane, aka the Hound, rescues Sansa Stark from a gang of would-be rapists. The Hound eviscerates one guy, whose intestines tumble down around his knees, and it just looks fake. This is in contrast to the much more effective scene earlier in the episode where Theon beheads Ser Rodrik, or the scene a few episodes back where the Gold Cloaks murder an infant child in its mother's arms. In both those scenes the gore happens offscreen, and is much more effective.

The whole sequence with the crowd turning ugly felt rushed. In A Clash of Kings, Joffrey's party is mounted, and the crowd is much bigger, and it takes longer for the situation to spiral out of control. Obviously there were serious budgetary limits in place here, but if there's one change I would have liked to see it would have been to excise some of the weaker material from elsewhere in this episode and use the screen time to really flesh out this scene. Then there could be a lot more buildup of tension as the mood of the crowd turns uglier and uglier, Sansa gets more and more nervous, and Joffrey's petulance makes the situation worse and worse, before all hell breaks loose.

4) Why do Jon and Ygritte run a 10K?

The scene with Jon Snow and Ygritte in "The Old Gods and the New" is a perfect example of a straightforward, logical scene from A Clash of Kings that's been tampered with to its detriment. The scene follows the book fairly closely up until the point where Jon raises his sword to execute Ygritte. In the books, he realizes that he can't go through with it and tells her, "Go, before my wits return," and she slips away.

In the show, Jon brings his sword down on the rock beside her head. Ygritte then kicks him and runs off, and he pursues her, becoming separated from his companions, and ultimately tackles her and ties her up. Why? Why chase her? Why tie her up? What's the point of any of this? He's already been told that they can't feed and guard a prisoner. Is he planning to complete the rest of his mission with a sword in one hand and an uncooperative girl-on-a-leash in the other? And honestly how far could she have run that the two of them are now separated from his companions? Can't legendary ranger Qhorin Halfhand track footsteps through snow? This whole sequence makes no sense whatsoever.

Then, as night falls, Jon and Ygritte are forced to huddle together for warmth. In the books, Ygritte is plain, frizzy-haired, and dressed in fur and rags, whereas in the show she's gorgeous, showered and dressed like an arctic commando from G.I. Joe. So it's no wonder that Jon's discomfited when she starts squirming her butt around. She's giving him a boner, get it? After all, nothing is more arousing than lying on rocky ground in subzero temperatures. This whole thing just felt straight out of a Farrelly brothers movie.

Robb Stark (played by Richard Madden) has the best collection of miniatures in all of Westeros.

Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

5) When did Osha become such a femme fatale?

In the books, Osha is a tough, skinny old woman, whereas in the show she's a sultry twenty-something redhead whose neck seems permanently canted at a 45-degree angle. In the show she seduces Theon as part of her escape plot. This doesn't happen in the books, but Theon in the books is definitely horny and reckless, and Osha in the books does have a blase attitude about using sex to her advantage, so this turn of events isn't totally without foundation, especially considering how much younger Osha is on the show. I think I'll let this one slide, and count myself lucky that at least the nudity this time around involved a character from the books, and had at least some relevance to the plot.

6) What's with the dragon-napping?

Events in Qarth were sort of exasperating this week. First Daenerys Targaryen has a confrontation with the Spice King that plays like a rerun of their standoff outside the city gates, and again she starts yelling threats for no good reason, which just makes her look foolish, especially considering that her khalasar could now fit on a school bus. Her character shows much greater diplomatic skill in the novel – where she's just a teenager.

It's been something of a running theme this season that the writers seem to think it's "dramatic" for characters to openly threaten each other, when in fact it just makes the characters seem weak and not truly a part of the world they inhabit – a world that breeds and demands much greater savviness.

"The Old Gods and the New" climaxes with Dany's discovery that her young dragons have been kidnapped. Nothing like this happens in the book. I guess this isn't terrible, as far as plot twists go, but there are so many scenes from the books that are so much better than this that I wish they'd just give us those instead. Granted, Dany's adventures in Qarth in A Clash of Kings are maybe lacking in overt drama, but I'd imagine that the best solution would just be to spend less time on her story, rather than trying to spice it up with this sort of contrived suspense.

What's Your Take on Season 2 of Game of Thrones?
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Give us your spin on Sunday's episode of Game of Thrones, and/or your take on the HBO series so far, in the comments below.